Contributors

Utah’s multicity public fiber network, Utopia, is moving forward with a new model in which individual users pay the cost of connecting their homes with fiber.

Late last week, the Brigham City Council approved a $5.5-million plan to extend the wholesale fiber network throughout its streets. The city itself is putting up just $655,384 of that cost, while business and residential customers who want fiber are putting up the rest.

Already more than 1600 individuals have agreed to pay $3000 each for their own fiber-to-the-home, the Cache Valley Daily reports. The city is allowing homeowners to spread that payment out over 20 years, to just $25 a month. The city gets a lien on the property in such cases and also reaps the economic-development benefits of city-wide fiber deployment without having to take on enormous loads of debt up front.